I must admit that I am a bit of a privacy freak. Ok stop laughing; it's true I am a total privacy freak. Indeed 30 years ago I wrote "Memoirs of an Ex- Social Security Number Giver" . In it I explained the credo of my private revolution, that no one who didn't have a legal right to it would get my social security number. In 1976 I was worried about what would happen if all those people could access all that information about me, using just one number (and those were the days when computers used vacuum tubes-- ok not really, but they sure were a lot bigger, slower and less powerful than they are now).

I continue to worry about privacy, but at least I'm not alone. FairerScience friend David Mortman has a brand new blog on identify theft. It's interesting and a little scary-- like the story of the former PTA president stealing kids' identities.

Speaking of scary I just checked to see if the link to "Memoirs of an Ex- Social Security Number Giver" was still live and found, on the page, google ads for things like "Quick & Easy SSN Files. Get the Scoop on Anyone!" OMG

PS Being paranoid as well as privacy freak I want to point out it's not my fault-- it's not my website, I signed over the copyright for the article over 30 years and I'm really depressed about having those ads on it. Read the article but not the adds-- please.